Rebecca Ferguson doesn’t mind people knowing she’s claustrophobic. “Expose it!” she says. “I’m quite blissful people know because in the event that they listen, they’ll be like, ‘Okay, good to know, she’ll take the steps when she comes.’”
The subject arose when Ferguson dropped by the Variety Awards Circuit Podcast and took the five flights of stairs as much as the studio reasonably than get in an elevator. She can also be, in her words, “a human Jason Bourne” of sorts – meaning she assesses her surroundings wherever she goes and registers things like which way the doors swing. Today, she has already clocked that the doors to the room open inward, which implies she won’t give you the chance to kick it open if trapped. So as an alternative, we’ve left a little bit ajar. She adds that this extends to each location: “Going to public loos – it’s a difficulty!”
There’s an upside, nonetheless. “I take into consideration butt exercise,” she reveals. She recalls an incident where her “Mission Inconceivable” co-star Tom Cruise was walking upstairs and either he or his trainer kept saying to themselves: “Booty. Booty, booty, booty.”
The claustrophobia is a little bit ironic, considering that Ferguson is each executive producer and star of “Silo,” the Apple TV+ series set in a dystopian future where the skin world has change into uninhabitable and humanity lives together in an underground silo. Ferguson says people bring this up on a regular basis. “However it’s a location. It’s sets. I do know my exits.” Listen below!
“Silo” premiered in May 2023, which makes it (and Ferguson) eligible for this yr’s Emmy race. And it also helped cement her place as a little bit of a sci-fi icon, along along with her work as Lady Jessica within the “Dune” movies. Again, it’s a little bit ironic, as Ferguson doesn’t necessarily see herself as a fan of the genre, that she generally gravitates towards small indies. “After I say ‘indie,’ I mean when the director has the facility over his own material,” she clarifies. “Once you read a script and you think that, ‘That’s the film and nobody’s going to alter it.’”
But she keeps being drawn back to those worlds. “Obviously, it’s all the way down to me what film I do and why I do it,” she says. “And the characters that I even have fallen in love with have actually been a component of something greater, whether sci-fi or futuristic or post-apocalyptic. And it’s form of sticking. I don’t know if the characters are more compelling.”
Such is the case with Juliette Nichols, her character in “Silo,” who begins to query what life outside their contained existence could be. The character is, like a lot of Ferguson’s, a badass. “The word badass doesn’t mean that she is consistently out struggling and doing cool shit. It’s decisions, it’s consequences, it’s rawness, it’s sadness. It’s consistently meeting something hard, and getting over it and finding a brand new solution. And that’s kind of the guts of the character.”
In her quest for answers, Juliette ruffles some feathers and catches the attention of those in power. While many individuals can be blissful to follow the establishment, Ferguson says she pertains to this aspect of the character. “I provoke. But I provoke out of curiosity, I don’t provoke to lively something and be mean. I just query on a regular basis,” she says. “Like, I’m married but not religious. I got married since it’s something fun to do. However the ring doesn’t hold me closer to my partner than if I didn’t have it. It was like, ‘Other people have done it, let’s try it!’ Not until death parts us – you already know, when you mess up and I mess up, we move on.”
Ferguson has been touched by the recognition of the show, noting that even on the carpet for a “Mission Inconceivable” movie she’ll hear people shouting the name of the show. It’s one in every of several roles she’s recognized for – the truth is, upon seeing her in person, there’s a flicker of discomfort that one later realizes is since you’re the diabolical Rose the Hat from the film version of Stephen King’s “Doctor Sleep.” Even with so many iconic costars in her profession, it’s an instinct Ferguson understands. “I still do it with actors, regardless that it’s my word. It takes two seconds to your brain to go – television, not real, move on.” Ask her jokingly if meaning she was intimidated opposite Hugh Jackman, her costar in “The Best Showman,” and he or she jokes, “No, absolutely not. I’m like, ‘Hugh sit down. Put your shirt on. Stop it, Hugh.’”
Variety’s “Awards Circuit” podcast, hosted by Clayton Davis, Jenelle Riley, Jazz Tangcay, Emily Longeretta and Michael Schneider, who also produces, is your one-stop source for energetic conversations about the perfect in film and tv. Each week, “Awards Circuit” features interviews with top film and TV talent and creatives, discussions and debates about awards races and industry headlines, and way more. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or anywhere you download podcasts. Recent episodes post weekly.
